"The spirit of entrepreneurship is innately human"- Dougan Sherwood

Dougan Sherwood is a visionary. He looks into the future and imagines what an innovative ecosystem looks like for universities and businesses.

Our guest today, Dougan Sherwood, is the co-founder of Cambridge Innovation Center St. Louis, and the current global director of expansion. CIC is a real estate services company that takes pride in their culture and how they’ve built a “community for entrepreneurs.” CIC has been the home of fast-growing companies since its conception in 1999.

During the interview, Dougan shares about how exciting it is to see people start from concept to actually realizing their full potential and landing venture capital that ultimately gets their business models off the ground. It’s quite inspiring!

CIC in also the home of Venture Cafe, the weekly networking and business training that so many people attend here in St. Louis. Check out our interview with Venture Cafe's Travis Sheridan

On this episode, you will learn:

What CIC is and how it works
How cities can take advantage of startups
How coworking spaces have made an impact in today’s business arena
All about venture capital and how one gets it
The risks and costs of starting a business and how CIC can help you beat those
Why customer service is the most important aspect of any business

Quotes:

"When you design and build spaces, the look and feel is important" - Dougan Sherwood

"CIC is a platform - like your smartphone"- Dougan Sherwood

"I see this challenge the fundamentals of commercial real estate"- Dougan Sherwood

"I'm a bit of a hotel manager/mayor/executive"- Dougan Sherwood

"Companies are best served by delaying as long as they can before funding"- Dougan Sherwood

"Adventure is facing true risk and significant fear and having the willingness to walk towards it"- Dougan Sherwood

"The spirit of entrepreneurship is innately human"- Dougan Sherwood

Continue the Adventure (Resources from this episode):
Email Dougan directly: dougan@cictr.com

Dougan’s Twitter: @dougan2

Cambridge Innovation Center website

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